Waterloo enthusiast Willy Smout, 56, adjusts figurines on a 40-square-metre miniature model of the June 18, 1815 Waterloo battlefield, in Diest, Belgium, in this picture taken on April 29, 2015. (Reuters/Francois Lenoir) / Reuters

Four decades in the making, an epic 40 square meter diorama of the Battle of Waterloo has been completed by a Belgian enthusiast, just in time for its bicentenary next month.

Now, the 1/1,000-scale model in the basement of his home in the
village of Schaffen, 70 km northeast of Waterloo, includes 3,000
handpainted soldiers, including 72 counterparts of historic
figures.

"During the last couple of years, I pushed myself really hard
to finish it," he told Reuters. "I succeeded last
week."

It took Smout 40,000 hours and the equivalent of 150,000 euros in
work, research and expanding his home to accommodate the
astounding piece, he estimated.

He will be one of some 200,000 people who are expected to visit
the commemoration of the June 18, 1815 battle that ended the
period of Napoleonic wars and reshaped Europe.

The defeat of Bonaparte's French army by Britain's Duke of
Wellington and his Prussian allies is significant for Belgium
itself, as the dissolution of the French Empire paved the way for
the Belgian revolution 15 years later, in which several Dutch
provinces seceded to form an independent kingdom.